Maryland is poised to become the first state to ban employers from demanding applicants or workers hand over their log-in information for social media sites like Facebook.

The measure, which handily passed the legislature earlier this month, keeps managers from snooping on password-protected content, a practice advocates of the bill say violates privacy and intimidates job seekers and employees...

When prosecutors revealed last month that a Baltimore man accused of using a contraband cell phone in jail to order the killing of a witness was again caught with an illegal phone behind bars, the judge's jaw dropped. He couldn't fathom how this keeps happening. It's "amazing," said U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett.

But jail administrators will tell you it's not. Cell phones are smuggled into prisons in Maryland and around the world by the thousands through visitors, corrupt guards and, in Brazil, carrier pigeons. They're thrown over barrier walls, carried in body cavities and delivered by UPS. Inmates use them to run drug operations, intimidate witnesses, plan their escapes, harass victims' families and pass the time, calling girlfriends and grandmothers without fear of officers listening in. A single jail phone, passed from one inmate to another, can rack up thousands of calls per month…

Nine officers at Roxbury Correctional Institution were fired Friday by the state prison agency in a continuing investigation of alleged brutality against inmates at two institutions. No criminal charges have been filed, according to a release from the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

The agency announced March 14 that eight officers had been recommended for termination for their alleged involvement in the beating of a inmate March 8 and 9 at the medium-security facility that houses about 1,750 inmates.

The fired officers include at least one supervisor - a lieutenant - and a number of lower-ranking officers, said Steve Berger, western Maryland union representative for the American Federation of State, Municipal and County Employees. He said the union will represent the officers in appeals…

A federal grand jury indicted 28 defendants for conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise known as the Tree Top Piru Bloods gang (TTP Bloods) and conspiracy to distribute drugs and gun violations, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and Baltimore City State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy. The indictment was returned under seal on February 21, 2008, and unsealed today upon the arrests of eight defendants. Fourteen defendants were previously in custody. This indictment was the culmination of a long-term joint investigation by the ATF, Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office and the United States Attorney's Office.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said, "More than 100 law enforcement officers deployed this morning to execute search warrants and arrest members of a violent gang known as TTP Bloods. The detailed indictment alleges that TTP Bloods gang members belong to a nationwide racketeering enterprise, for which they may be exiled to federal prison with no probation and no parole…"